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Thursday, December 11, 2008

This is going to be a short post I fear today. I can't shake this cold and can somebody tell me why it is 70F after midnight....talk about throwing a migraine into the loop!! It's December for crying out loud!! Time for mulled wine, sweaters, fireplaces, clementines, hot cocoa, pomegranates, and quinces. Instead the fall/winter produce stalls have to share their space with berries and juicy melons. Upside down, inside out...completely out of the box, which is kind of where I went with this cake. Innocent looking cake, filled with poached quinces, topped with berries, baked and served in a box used for Brie or Camembert instead.

The idea came to me over lunch the other day as we were finishing the last of the Brie and while we were planning our friend J.'s birthday party for Friday. J. is a prankster. A good one for sure but it's pretty much non stop with him. A get together with him and his wife is never just that. On the ride to their house, we are always wondering what he's got in store, who will be involved and how long we are going to talk about it on the way back home. They're nice pranks but after so many years, we are all scheming on how and when to get him back. All in good fun. Well, except for a couple of us like F. who is ready for pay back since the day he found his motorcycle on the roof of his house...long story...

I figured that handing him a cheese box at dessert time was still a little obvious so I topped the cake with different fruits, strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate, grapes and glazed them all with some apple jelly. That way, he would still be unsure about what was underneath. I got B. fooled so I am hoping that will work too. Can't take credit for the look novelty as I inspired by the look of one of my pastry bad boy, Michalak. I had already decided to use my tried and true cake recipe but I could not pass on his cute presentation. And no, the cake did not smell of stinky cheese...

Ever tried to apply fruit glaze or jelly to fruits over tart shells or cakes and they keep moving, rolling around and never staying put? Imagine applying glaze to a beautiful lemon curd tart topped with a gazillion rolling blueberries. Not that easy! Here is my trick for stress free glazing: warm up your glaze so that it is very liquid in consistency, fill a travel size spray bottle with it and spray your tart or cake with the glaze as quickly as possible.

In a large saucepan set over medium high heat, place the quince and the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook the quince for about 45 minutes, until soft and pink. Remove the quince from the liquid and let cool to room temperature.

About one cup of mixed berries or any fruit of your likingAbout 1/2 cup apple jelly to glaze the fruits

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the top and bottom part of a Brie or Camember box with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Coat with cooking spray and set aside.In a mixer, whip the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Add the flour, baking powder and melted butter and mix on medium high speed until all the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Stop the mixer and by hand fold in the poached quince. Divide the batter among the cake "pans" and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.Let cool completely. Top the cakes with the fruits and apply the apple jelly, previously warmed up until spreadable.

The fruit look so vivid and fresh! I wish I could find fresh fruit right now in our markets as gorgeous as what you have on that cake! I love the composition of your shots. They really salivatingly delicious.

Gadfry, sorry it took me so long but I just had to retrieve the cheese box from the trash!Love the fruit AND the glaze on this, just pretty.I do hope the you're feeling better soon. Why is it called the common cold when it makes us feel so uncommonly bad?Oh and the 70°s you're having maybe it's because Dallas has sucked all the cold here.

I hope you get well soon from your cold...but gee...you sure are a worker bee to post while feeling sick. I wish I have your motivation.

Love love love the idea of having the brie container as a cake box!! It does look like cheese topped with fruits instead of a mischief of a cake!! And thanks for the spray bottle flangel tip! I'm positive it will come in handy for me one day.

There is nothing that irks me more than perfect fruit blanketed in a stodgy, thick glaze. It is like putting on your prettiest party dress and then throwing a parka on top. Your glaze looks perfect, the absolute right amount to gild and glisten the fruits to their luscious best. Gorgeous, as usual, m'dear!

Aww... Get well soon Helen! On the plus side, with all that warm weather, you have... Berries and melons! ;) See, we wouldn't have gotten to see this vision of loveliness we now have. That's a pretty cool trick for glazing, by the way! (I suppose I need to have boiling water to flush the nozzle with as soon as I'm done!)

Excellent idea to use the cheese box for presentation!You are lucky to have such temperature!! Over here it's below zero at night and I feel cold all the time.Mulled wine and hot cocoa sounds good to me at this time of the year :) In fact, I am going to make some mulled wine :)

Sweetheart, I'm so sorry you're still sick :( Hope you recover quickly. Here is a great prank for your friend... Use some spongy packing foam (like the large pieces used to ship computers) and ice it with real frosting and decorate like a real cake. Serve it to him ;) My friends pulled that prank on one of the profs in my dept - let him cut into it and everything. Hi-larious. xxoo

Oh I'm so sorry you're still sick. And it's awful to be sick when it's warm outside, no matter the season, but especially when it should be cold. I love that you cooked it in a brie box and what a great tip! I have regular fights with the rolling berries when it's berry season.

I hope you feel better soon, Tartelette! I am impressed you could still post this lovely cake--migraine and all. I am just getting over a week long of being sick myself. Something is going around... No warm weather in Seattle, though. We're expecting snow tonight or tomorrow.Take care.

Anonymous: the shells can be stored unfilled in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Once filled, it is really a matter of taste as the longer they stand the softer they get. Some people like them cold, some people like them room temp. I like to make them the day before so the filling and shell get the chance to meld together but that is just a personal preference. I would not keep them unfilled or filled more than 4 days as they tend to taste stale after that.

Anonymous: the shells can be stored unfilled in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Once filled, it is really a matter of taste as the longer they stand the softer they get. Some people like them cold, some people like them room temp. I like to make them the day before so the filling and shell get the chance to meld together but that is just a personal preference. I would not keep them unfilled or filled more than 4 days as they tend to taste stale after that.

i was going to comment a bit back about how clever i thought i was for recognizing that you recycled a fromage box to put your cake in, but then as i read i realized that that was the whole point. blast it! i have nothing cheeky to say. so instead, i think i will say that fromage boxes are making me sad, for some reason, as christmas gets closer, im starting to get really homesick for paris. last christmas was the utmost of adventures. i miss it all.